>>94504683I think Dan is the main bad guy here. He uses the show as his own personal outlet. Channeling struggles into creative endeavors can yield great things, but this divorce arc is just the most narcissistic thing I've ever seen. Hijacking an entire season just to feel sorry for yourself about a divorce?
It's a shit arc, too. We watched Rick and Morty replace their dead selves in a different universe. Morty's true family was left behind. This new family are merely imposters. You can see the trauma on his face. It's haunting to him. By the next episode, he's bounced back, but the continuity isn't forgotten. So why would a simple divorce have this big an impact on him compared to everything else?
Not to mention the Concerto stinger at the end. So many people were excited about that episode, but you know why it wouldn't be made? Because it would be a "formulaic" episode where Rick and Morty go up against a villain. It's too straightforward. Dan absolutely has to have the smartest, most unique show on air at all moments. He can never play anything straight. Everything has to be a deconstruction of something, or a meta joke, or anything that can't be scrutinised by pseudo-intellectual internet critics whose analysis just breaks things down to tropes.
Dan is so obsessed with looking like some tortured genius that he's killing what made the show good. He's making Rick more and more like himself. That's a terrible mistake because Dan is thoroughly unlikeable.
